Thursday, April 29, 2010

David Harvey and the Enigma of Capital

Via. David Harvey's Enigma of Capital Lecture at the London School of Economics.



Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

"Debt encumbered home owners don't go on strike" (3:50-5:00 in the video). This is the most cogent one line explanation of the roots of the current crisis I've heard.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Art!

Via Logical Regression:


I find this juxtaposition absurdly wonderful:
What I do like the idea of though is perhaps claiming such constellations as ‘readymades’, in the way that Duchamp once famously claimed a urinal to be ‘art’ (Fountain, 1917). Though the Carina Nebula declared as ‘art’ arguably has the opposite effect of the urinal declared as ‘art’. Where the latter gesture confounded the judging panel at the exhibition to which Duchamp submitted the urinal, as it was deemed to bring art down to the level of the toilet – the pissing bowl – it is more likely, when applied to the Carina Nebula to confound the kind of people who want everyone to be equally enthused by the enormity of the Universe. At the least, it seems to reduce, make palatable, the Universe, rather than demeaning art.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Fair Hitler Use

Via abject learning:

Critical Commons gets screwed on fair use

And here is a meta-parody of these recent events:

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pure Poppycock

Auto-Tune the News:



Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden and Matt Drudge. Separated at birth?


"I do it all the time. Making up shit is so sublime." Evidently, this line when sung by a man in a fedora means that you must be doing a Matt Drudge impersonation. Even the Drudge Report thinks so. And they would never make shit up. This is despite the fact that Madden wears a fedora in public almost as frequently as Drudge. I love how this "news" story resonates with the Auto-Tune lyrics about being pulled under by the "riptide of lies" online. Life imitates art.

In other news, Matt Drudge and Nicole Richey are now engaged:

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Music Roulette

This is by far the best use of ChatRoulette I've seen...



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Outsourcing Grading

This idea is almost tempting at the end of semester with term papers piling up...

Corporations have taken advantage of outsourcing for decades; the process lowers costs and often allows services to be provided which could not be otherwise accommodated. Now some university faculty believe the same principle can be applied to the task of grading papers written by undergraduates. The graders working for EduMetry, based in a Virginia suburb of Washington, are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, along with some in the United States and elsewhere. They do their work online and communicate with professors via e-mail. The company advertises that its graders hold advanced degrees and can quickly turn around assignments with sophisticated commentary...